23. Seoggulam, the Great Image of Buddha
Facing the dawn on the shore of the East Sea
You overlook the bondless sea;
Deva Kings standing in a circle for eternal time
Around you are breathing gently.
When solitary flowers fall and birds cry
Sweet water springs out quietly;
The wind passes through the pine trees.
Wind becomes wind,
Wind mixes with wind.
As pine trees are ever green for thousands of years,
So spiritual enlightenment can be attained in silence.
Even from lips closed forever, a sermon comes out;
Even eyes closed, are as bright as a lamp.
Even ears mute to this world, know it already.
Breathing for a thousand years,
Its breath is warm.
If a star falls from your pure sky,
We know all. we realize
That a thousand rivers, a thousand stars
Shine in the dark sea floating about.
24. The Morning Sun of Mt.Toham
The sun rises at dawn on the East Sea.
The morning sun comes up
To be light, sound, and legend,
Touching the crown of the mountains.
Into the valley of Mt. Toham
The light splits the darkness like broken sea shells.
Being scattered like many pieces of stone,
The bright sun rises higher, more brilliantly
And makes a splendid morning on the mountain.
The sun spreading its beams on the pine tree forest
And bringing together the fresh spirits of the mountain,
Wild flowers blossom, birds sing.
Into the fog of the mid-slop of the mountain
Distant rocks and trees stand up
Taking a good stretch.
Over to one side
Sublime scenery silhouetted against the sky,
Uncovers its face of legend bound up for many thousands of years,
And flies up in the air like a phoenix
With the splendid mind of the morning sun.
25. Bekyul Temple
In the forest of chestnut trees on Mt. Sogeumgang
East of Kyungju
There was a temple built by an unknown king.
Here Cha-Don Lee,1 a martyr,
Was beheaded to plant Buddhism in the land of Silla,
For a thousand years the lagends say
A python guards the temple,
Green moss grows on the rock holes of the embankment
And darkness comes out of the apertures of the rocks.
On foggy mornings, in the forest of chestnut trees
A bass drum wakes up rivers and mountains.
In the early dawn of the forest when the sound dies out
A dim lamp reveals someone walking with big strides
Under oak trees, flashes in the morning fog.
Oh, the aroma of this forest, the smell of burning incense,
The smell of a crematory chimney, and
A pious day dawning
Mixing with the sound of the woodblock leads to deliverance.
Sitting on the top of the mountain,
The aroma of pine trees, makes you tremble,
Makes all the rivers and mountains tremble,
Going down the mountain path.
Womenfolk climb the mountain path to fetch clear water,
A day trembles in the small gourd.
Are we living
In the dust and dirt of distant cities?
In the valley of Bekyul Temple
A light is passing, burning away the darkness every morning
Like the body of a woman
An oak-tree forest, concave and wrinkled.
1. Cha-don Lee(506-527) : the first martyr to Buddhism in Silla. According to the legend, when his throat was cut, he spilled white blood.
26. Gumjang Egicheongsu
Here's Egicheongsu of Gumjang
The scene of novels; Moon, Rock, and Shaman by Dong-Ri Kim.
They say a python lives here and swallows a child every year
It is called Egicheongsu, Egi Clear Pool.
It is too deep to reach the bottom with a line.
Hyungsan River runs 62 km:
Wooden boats come up the deep blue river
From Ulju, via Mt. Inne of Dori, to Pohang.
Bringing the white, fine sands of Gumjang,
Every year bringing white, fine sands,
Wild geese, symbols of good fortune didn't come back this year.
Now Egitagsu, Egi Dark Pool,
Where fish are contaminated by poisonous sewage
Are deformed, some hunchbacked fish are living here.
After crossing the bridge, on the thickly-wooded hill
Pine tree pollen blows from Mt. Songwha,
Anglers sitting on the opposite rock,
The hill is overrun with grass.
If the rain of May comes
Green waves will flow down against the hem of the blue sky.
Rocks on the hill will reflect on the river,
Crossing the water like a single-oared boat,
Young fish float belly up out to the sea.
Standing on the bridge, dark sky goes somewhere,
At night the moon of Dong-Ri Kim flows on the river,
Going somewhere.
27. The Stone Bell of Sonsun
Sonsun lived in Moryangbu.
He was too poor to eat three meals a day.
But he gave all he had to his mother,
His little son snatched food from his grand mother,
"Take food from your grand mother, you thief!
I will bury you under the ground."
When night came,
His wife followed her husband.
As they dug a hole,
What's this?
It's a stone bell, a stone bell.
The bell for the filial son
Descended from heaven.
He hung it on the branch of a pine tree,
Tolling the bell with all his strength.
The sound spread out like waves,
Washing over Seoralbeol from heaven to earth.
Washing away poverty and sorrow,
Sonsun lived in Moryangbu,
In the time of Silla.
28. Ho-Te-Wang-Ho-Wu-Sip1
A thousand year old bronze dish
Was discovered on a rainy day.
The dish filled with water
In the full dish the faces of history were seen.
Gwanggeto the Great and King Jangsu of Goguryeo,2
Je-Sang Park and Bohea,3
King Jinheung who set up The Sunsu Monuments4
To defend the vast land against the north wind,
A battle cry going out from the nation
Became brilliant sunbeams sleeping for an age
In an ancient tomb, around a fortress site,
Of Noseodong in Kyongju.
On the day it was discovered,
Its message was read.
The letters engraved under the dish
Came out into the sunlight.
<Ho-Te-Wang-Ho-Wu-Sip>
(King-Hote-Holy-Dish-Bowl)
1. 15 Chinese characters are engraved under a bronze dish, which was unearthened at Noseodong, in Kyungju in 1946. The dish(made in 415) with its lid is important to study the relation between the Silla dynasty and the Goguryo dynasty.
2. Gwanggeto the Great(reigned 391-413) or King Hote was the most powerful king of the Goguryo dynasty, and his som was King Jangsu(reigned 413-491).
3. Je-Sang Park(? -416) saved Bohea, who was a brother of the 18th King Nulji, was taken as a hostage in the Goguryo dynasty.
4. The 24th King Jinheung(reigned 540-576) set up The Sunsu Monuments to expand national power at the northern boundary of Silla.
29. A Rooster Crows at Gerim
One day
At Gerim nearby Banweol Castle
A bright morning was dawning.
In the forest a white rooster crowing
A golden box was opened, and
An auspicious light came out a purple cloud.
Clouds covered the zelkova trees of Samhan1,
It became a man.
And then it became the sky.
On every leaf nodding in the wind
Sunbeams are shining.
Primeval forest reflects the sunbeams, and
They are flowing on trees and grass.
At that time, in the fields
People harvested their every day life,
Eating, drinking, working, and dying,
Golden morning was coming every day.
A rooster opened the day crowing to the daybreak,
Mountains are getting old, so are rivers,
Wild flowers blossoming in the field of Seorabeol.
1. Samhan was three ancient kingdoms(Mahan, Jinhan, and Byonhan), which were in the southern part of Korean Peninsula.
30. The Bridge of Honor and Shame
Every night, his mother
A widow burned with sexual desire
Between her legs till daybreak.
Stars were scattered on the stream,
The filial piety of her only son was to carry his mother
Across the stream out of the village.
His mother went cross the stream in the evening
To meet her lover, coming back at dawn.
For her sinful journey,
He built stepping stones every night.
At last, the stones became a bridge,
named the bridge of honor and shame.
Now a crescent moon bobs up and down
As night goes over the stone bridge.
The declining Milky Way flows down
Between Altair and Vega.
31. Gujiga1
Turtle, turtle, put out your head,
Or I'll broil you to eat.
You put in your stiff head
Put out your head
your mouth driveling with white foams.
With pleasure to meet your king
Sing and dance joyfully.
A rainbow hangs on Guji Hill;
To Garak kingdom2 a distant river flows.
Let's go turtle, let go there go there.
Shake your head in the air,
And then hide it for the fear of death.
Pound the ground, stamp the earth, and dig a hole,
And then a darling baby comes out of a turtle's egg.
Dear Suro3!, the king of Garak kingdom.
Born on a day full of wisdom in this land,
Turtle, turtle, put out your head.
Put out your head,
Or I'll broil you to eat.
1. Gujiga : the song of delicious Turtle
2. The Garak dynasty(42?-562) was a tribal kingdom on the lower Nakdong River. It consisted of six Gaya(another name of arak), and was destroyed by Silla in 532.
3. King Suro(reigned 42-199) was the founder of the Garak dynasty. In A.D. 42, six golden eggs descended from the heaven on the Guji Hill. He was the first of them.
32. One Day I Met the Goddess Living in Mt. Seondo
Trees stand high in the darkness
Along the mountain path going up the skirt of Mt. West,
Birds among the trees sing brightly of days to come.
The spirit of Mt. Seondo is a legendary goddess.
She moved into this mountain in ancient days,
And has looked after it.
One day I met her in the mountain.
A black hawk living in Mt. Seoyon
Flow around the mountain with a long letter in its beak,
After entering the shrine of the goddess at the summit,
It never came out again.
Sometimes a black hawk appears in women's dreams
Such as the dreams of Munhi and Bohi1,
Bohi getting her clothes wet with urine while sleep,
The hawk drys like a crow as if opening a closed door
On a hill in the other world.
Smog on the side of the mountain,
Sooted wings, contaminated crying,
The distant clouds do not to recover
Are sinking into the evening glow.
A wild flower is dropping in the setting sun.
1. They were the sisters of General Yu-Shin Kim(595-673). One night Bohi(elder sister) dreamed of wetting her bed. Munch bought her dream, for which she became the Queen of King Tejong Muyeol at last.
33. Asanyeo's1 Monologue
"I wish I could see my husband's face.
I wish I could touch his hands."
- the wish of Asanyeo -
At last in the territory of Seorabeol
After a distant journey from Bekje to Silla,
That night, there was a full-moon.
All the pain disappeared as if meeting her husband by the moon light.
The sad crying of Chinese scopes owls every night
Was over now.
Next morning I'll meet my husband, Ahsadal,
Expressing to him my heart's deep love.
Now I can listen without loneliness
To the croaking frogs on the ponds.
I never desired the menfolk in the street.
Bearing the pleasure of my dear in my heart
Next morning in the land of Seorabeol,
After a long night, the bright morning comes.
I have come here to meet my dear
All the way overcoming sorrows and hardships, but
Whatever is the matter?
"Your husband is doing his life's masterpiece,
Accordingly you must look at his face
Reflected in Youngji Pond three miles away."
What a thunderbolt from the blue it was!
Why did I come this distance?
Though unable to talk with you,
Though unable to touch your hands,
If I can see your face on the pond three miles away,
Surely you are my dear husband.
I'll have no resentment even if falling into the pond.
I'll have no anger even if dying in the water.
But The king of Heaven,
But The Supreme Being knows,
We are husband and wife united as a heaven-made match.
Do they know how much my resentment is
Not to meet my dear after coming a long way.
I would rather die to be a long with him as a soul.
I would rather die to be a thousand years with him.
1. Asanyeo was a Bekje woman come to meet her husband Asadal, a famous stone sculptor at the invitation of Silla. But the head monk of Bulguk Temple refused to let Asanyeo meet her husband because it would disturb his work. She had to wait for him at Youngji(Reflection Pond) to see his reflection onthe pond. Unfortunately she fell into the pond and died.